Some residents around Maraban Maska told our correspondent that the incident must have occurred sometime between 8:30 pm on Thursday and 3 am on Friday as sporadic gunshots were heard intermittently within the period.
Our correspondent however independently gathered from sources that when the gunmen opened fire at the convoy, the vehicle carrying the emir had made a quick U-turn while the Hilux vehicle conveying the emir’s uncle referred to as Dan Amar of Kaura Namoda as well as two palace guards, a blogger, the driver and three policemen were not so lucky.
The source also told Daily Trust that the occupants of the Hilux vehicle had initially escaped out of the vehicle and ran into the bush but were trailed and killed by their assailants.
When our correspondent visited the scene of the attack on Friday, the vehicle had been moved from the scene but Daily Trust saw bloodstains on the road.
Abubakar Ishaq, whose brother, Rabiu Ishaq was one of the police officers killed in the incident said the family had gone to the General Hospital Funtua in Katsina state to identify their late brother where he saw seven other corpses including those of palace guards and a member of the royal family.
At the time of speaking with our correspondent, Abubakar explained that all corpses had been transferred to Gusau, the capital city of Zamafara state where the family members had converged for the funeral prayers.
It was later learnt that the remains of all victims were further moved to Kaura Namoda where a funeral prayer held around 3:30 pm on Friday and was attended by thousands of people including emirs in the state.
